1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network management systems, and in particular to adaptive performance data measurement and collection systems.
2. Background Information
As technology continues to develop and be deployed to an increasing number of users and applications, networks become larger and more complex. Consequently, network management involves monitoring the deployed nodes (i.e, computers, servers, routers, sub-networks, network enabled devices, and the like). The monitoring process includes a variety of parameters that are important to the system manager and the health of the network.
One part of the monitoring performed by a client network management system is to measure and collect performance data of servers and other computer systems in the network. Performance measurement and collection agents are deployed to measure and collect all the data needed to diagnose a problem with the system. The performance measurement and collection agent uses a measurement engine that acquires desired system metrics (e.g., CPU utilization, percentage of memory used, and the like). This data can then be used for generating performance reports and for aiding system operators in diagnosing system problems such as a memory bottleneck. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a significant amount of data is required to diagnose all potential system problems.
Prior performance measurement and collection agents (agents) have collected all the data needed to diagnose a problem all the time. This meant that the measurement and collection agent was using additional system resources and causing unneeded overhead to acquire data that was not needed to diagnose a problem. Examples of prior performance measurement and collection agents include commercially available software systems such as MeasureWare by Hewlett-Packard Company and Patrol by BMC Software, Inc. A description of the operation and configuration of MeasureWare can be found in xe2x80x9cHP OpenView MeasureWare Agent for Windows NT: User""s Manualxe2x80x9d, Hewlett-Packard Company, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These agents are preprogrammed with respect to the how and when the data is collected. Therefore, all data points are measured and collected at all times and cannot be dynamically turned on and off as the data is needed. Thus, the agent causes a continuous load on the system, even when the data is not required, using system resources that could be used for other processing.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system that adaptively measures and collects performance data such that it allows for the minimal amount of overhead needed to diagnose a problem, which increases the amount of system resources available for system processing.
The present invention is directed to methods and systems for adaptively measuring and collecting performance data. An exemplary method comprises: acquiring system performance data in accordance with a performance policy; and dynamically adjusting data measurement and collection based on the performance policy and a detected system condition.
An alternative method of adaptively monitoring performance data in a computer-based system comprises: establishing a self-monitoring data collection policy; measuring at least one system performance metric in accordance with the self-monitoring data collection policy; evaluating the at least one system performance metric to determine system health; dynamically adjusting the system performance metric measuring step based on the self-monitoring data collection policy and the system health; and repeating the steps of measuring, evaluating and dynamically adjusting.
An exemplary adaptative measurement agent for measuring performance data in a computer-based system comprises: logic that acquires system performance data in accordance with a performance policy; and logic that dynamically adjusts data measurement and collection based on the performance policy and a detected system condition.